Brazil pension reform vote pending, gov't draws up alternate agenda

Brazilian cabinet members and government leaders unveiled a priority economic agenda as an alternative to the reform in the country's pension system. The announcement was made on Monday evening (Feb 19).

Among the topics included are the simplification of the country's tax system, the new legal framework for licensing and contracts, a program for the recovery and improvement of state-run companies at business level, the privatization of Eletrobras (a government-controlled company in the electric energy field), and the new law on public financing.

Under Brazilian law, the decision made recently to conduct a federal intervention in the public security of Rio de Janeiro state makes it illegal to hold any vote on constitutional amendment bills—as is the case with the legislation outlining the pension reform—so the government drew up an agenda of 15 items it sees as fundamental.

According to Chief of Staff Eliseu Padilha, the decision was made by President Michel Temer after it was ascertained that the deliberations on the reform must be suspended during the intervention in Rio.

President Michel Temer had originally said that deliberations on the country's pension overhaul would continue, adding that it would be possible to suspend the intervention in order to submit the overhaul to vote, in case there was agreement among lawmakers.

“Our considerations led us to conclude that we couldn't start the discussion as scheduled. Taking this into account, the president requested that leaders as well as the heads of the two congressional houses list what could form a micro- and macroeconomic agenda, so we could start working on them as quickly as possible,” Padilha said.

The presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, said Senator Romero Jucá, will “join efforts” as of next month to advance all items on the agenda, slightly more than ten months before for the end of the current administration.

October

Ministers and party leaders, however, deny that the pension reform has been set aside. Padilha believes it could be voted on in October, after the elections.

The chief of staff understands that the lawmakers not voting in agreement with the government may change their minds in case they are not re-elected. Carlos Marun, head of the government's secretariat, argues that “the political conditions [for the approval of the overhaul] will come after the October elections.”

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira